Warm-up The Sound of Your Synth Leads

EQ boosting might seem the right approach if your mix lacks treble content. However, when exaggerated, this can generate an unpleasant sound. On the other hand, multiband distortion can boost top-end brightness, but the original signal's character will most certainly be affected. One of the most natural-sounding ways to enhance the top end of your instruments is to use a simple noise layer. We will demonstrate this in the following tutorial.

As usual, we prepared a short sequence in our SoundBridge: DAW. It includes most of the significant elements of a full mix. Let's hear it.

We've used Serum by Xfer to create a lead synth. Here is how that sounds.

Processing Your Synth Leads with Noise

This synth lead sounds a bit artificial and could be enriched. Let's take a look at the Serum user interface and navigate to the left. Here, we can see the noise generator, which we will turn on by pressing the square icon next to "NOISE."

Several samples for our noise layer become available from the drop-down menu below. We can control the phase and randomization, enable pitch tracking for the noise oscillator, and adjust the overall volume level using additional parameters.

Let's hear how our synth lead sounds after we set the parameters for our noise oscillator and select an appropriate noise sample.

Lastly, we'll add some reverb and a delay effect to give the lead some depth. Let's listen to it solo and then with the other elements of the whole mix.

If you liked this article on synth processing, here are some more on the same subject:

• Add Movement to Your Synth Leads
• How to Make a Punchy Synth Lead
• Layered Synth Sounds
• Funky Synth Stab Tutorial